Hi there! I recently discovered the incredible creative potential of wool roving and today, I want to share with you how to simply use it to decorate your garments.
You may know that I'm obsessed by all the ways to personalize, print and decorate fabrics and I recently finished to write a sewing book based on techniques of fabric customization (released in Spring 2018). Here, I tell you how to use wool roving to embellish your textiles :)
Believe me this technique is awesome, you'll just need:
a t-shirt (any knit or regular cotton fabric)
a 36 gauge felting needle
a piece of dense foam or needle mat
a tuft of wool roving
a small cookie cutter (basic shape)
an iron
optional:
a small piece of middle weight interfacing
mutiple needle felting tool
With the t-shirt facing you, insert the foam block into the location you want to have the patch.
Place the cookie cutter and fill it with your tuft of wool roving, spreading out the fibers evenly.
Take the needle and hold it vertically, repeatedly stab it into the wool roving and the t-shirt. First, work mainly around the outer perimeter of the cutter to define a pretty shape and then, work more inwards.
Once the shape looks well defined, you can remove the cutter and keep working evenly on the wool roving.
If you notice a lack of fibers, fill up any uneven spots by adding some wool roving. You can also add details and vary the colors.
If you have a multiple needle felting tool, you can also use it to speed the process. You need to get a flat and even surface.
Carefully peel off the t-shirt from the foam block and look at the backside of the t-shirt, you can see the wool transferred throughout the fibers.
If it looks flat and even through the shirt, set the iron on wool and press on the front and back to smooth and set in the patch.
A tip to stabilize the patch on the shirt and make it more durable: a piece of interfacing stuck on the back. Cut a piece of medium weight fusible web as large as the motif and press it on the wrong side. Then, press on the right side.
Now you are finished!
Take a good care of your patchy shirt, wash it:
- with cold water to prevent shrinkage
- on the wrong side to protect the wool roving patch
Have fun creating different patches for all family members. You can also decorate knees of leggings, elbows on sweater, vests, bags, pouch... this technique can be declined in endless possibilities!
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